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Microsoft Stumbles Through Xbox One Announcement

I just wrapped up my live coverage of the Xbox One reveal, an event that was half as long as most thought it would be, and one hour longer than it should have been.

Meaning, this shouldn’t have been an event in the first place.

The Xbox One announcement was an hour long, though really only 45 minutes if you don’t count the 25% of the presentation devoted solely to being a singular ad for the (non-Xbox exclusive) Call of Duty: Ghosts. The presentation veered wildly around from topic to topic, starting strong, but finishing prematurely before nearly any important questions about the system were answered.

As many expected, the Xbox presentation opened with a reveal of the console’s name, the Xbox One, and a full-on showcasing of the console itself and its controller, meant to be a direct leapfrogging of SonySony who never showed their box during their two hour reveal.

Immediately after, the word “living room” was heard a multitude of times as we learned how the Xbox One is more than a game console, it’s a TV tuner and cable box. The strongest portion of the presentation showed how a user can switch between watching TV and gaming instantly through the (thankfully included) Kinect, and even browse channels with listings without a need for the remote.

Things went awry from there.

In such a short amount of time, there were a lot of different aspects of the system they tried to cram in before the hour was up. They talked about new EA Sports titles and fantasy sports integration. Then they pivoted to a Forza tech demo and a confusing live-action/animated teaser trailer for a game called QuantumQuantum Break. Then they went back to TV and sports, offering yet another proclamation about fantasy football integration with the NFL, and then Stephen Spielberg showed up to announce he was supervising a live action Halo TV series on Xbox Live.

Then of course, they closed out the presentation by giving Activision 15 minutes to showcase Call of Duty: Ghosts, which should be noted is a previously announced, non-exclusive title for the Xbox. It gave us a glimpse into the graphical capabilities of the Xbox One, but mostly it was a commentary on what passes for innovation in the series these days, as designers bragged about how fish now dart out of your way during underwater sequences. Also, get this, you can now customize your character in multiplayer! Big moves, and certainly worth devoting 25% of the presentation to singular non-exclusive title.

The big questions answered were all in the first few minutes. What does it look like? What is it called? Does it come with Kinect?

But even bigger ones weren’t remotely addressed. Does the system require an internet connection? Does it play used games? How much does it cost? Will Xbox Live remain a monthly fee? And so on. One question that HAS been answered already in the wake of the presentation is that no, the Xbox One is NOT backward compatible.

(Update: Outside of the presentation, MicrosoftMicrosoft has now said that an internet connection is not required (but with cloud-based offloading functionality, always-on could be optional for developers), and all games DO have to be installed to the hard drives, and used games will likely require a fee to be activated.)

I don’t understand why this press conference needed to exist. Sony’s PlayStation 4 reveal was well ahead of E3 and spent two hours going over in great deal a huge number of aspects and games for the system. They kept some information under wraps for E3, like the price and console design, but they showed us a lot. Microsoft instead had their reveal mere weeks before E3, and slapped together a presentation that had no sense of flow to it at all, and didn’t answer the vast majority of questions people had about the system, nor did it show many games.

I am very impressed with the name, the design and the cable box-like abilities the Xbox One has. I am not impressed with how this reveal was conceived and organized, and think it was a mistake. Even if they’re dominating the news cycle right now, I have a hunch most of the coverage from press and fans won’t be terribly glowing.

If you’re only going to take an hour to announce a product this big, you can’t jump from item to item with nothing connecting them together. You can’t announce a video game console showing barely five minutes of in-game footage across three titles.

Hopefully Microsoft learns some lessons here in time for their E3 presentation. We’re living in an age of teaser trailers for actual trailers, and that’s what this press conference felt like the vast majority of the time.

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Microsoft revealed in an interview that always online is optional for developers. So a developer CAN make a game always online on the XBox One and then you would not be able to play it unless you were online. Please bother to do a little research before you jump to conclusions? Thanks.

Let me help you and the one million others who struggle to actually check things out.

“potential scenario.”

“potential scenario.”

“potential scenario.”

Microsoft even released yet another statement confirming they are NOT saying 24 hours nor are they saying any other time frame, the dude was simply trying to explain a player would NEED to connect to avail of the full feature set, kind of like “needing” to connect to use google.

I am sorry so many of you could not manage to read the source rather than bleat

Sorry but your whole post is a drag, across forums and tech sites people are delighted with the huge amount revealed.

Microsoft told us loads of stuff, perhaps you were too busy trying to blog to hear it.

Me, I saw they are including a TV guide, I enjoyed hearing how it will use 3 operating systems Xbox , Windows kernel and one to tie it all together.

I was super impressed with the Kinect 2 information and the details surrounding the instant switching and new hand gestures. making it super easy to watch TV and play games. No more asking the kids to set the movie up while I get the pop corn…

In fact thinking about it, you really have gone out of your way to try to make the event sound awful. I guess a hater is going hate.

Seriously, I don’t think it’s all doom and gloom for MS, but reading the comments at my usual gaming haunts, the hardcore, more invested gamers are not impressed with the Xbox One reveal.

With the emphasis on TV and other features, gamers are feeling left out, even if MS’s plan is to save those goodies for E3.

The fact remains that this is not a console targeted exclusively at gamers, rather MS has squarely taken aim at the living room and families. If that’s your demographic, then yes, I can see you being excited by this announcement.

Ask the gamers – single men and women, teens, adults with lots of disposable cash and time – and I think you’ll see a very different reaction.

WGJ what websites are you “seeing”? I am seeing a lot of positive reviews at many reputable websites, you must be visiting the Sony fanboy pages! and for you Bryan Solid: I consider myself a “Hard core gamer” since I have been doing it since the PONG days. At 45 years old I have spent many thousands of dollars on systems and games and am now buying for a family of 6. I look forward to this kind of integration with my game system because, “The Family That Plays Together – Stays Together! And we all consider ourselves GAMERS! And I know many other families that do the same. Thanks for speaking for us all though…